The Chino Cienega Foundation (CCF) was established in Palm Springs, California in 2003, as a legacy of two local philanthropic couples—Frances & Prescott Stevens, and Sallie & Culver Nichols. The purpose of the Foundation is to “engage in and support educational and charitable activities that foster cross-cultural and international understanding and cooperation, that encourage the viability of local communities, and that promote sustainable natural ecosystems.” Further, CCF is a member of the Peace and Security Funders Group, an association of foundations, charitable trusts, and individual philanthropists who “make grants or expenditures that contribute to peace and global security.”

In the United States, CCF has supported "youth-oriented empowerment programs" and has earmarked funds for "conservation land acquisition"—i.e., the purchase of real-estate parcels for the express purpose of subsequently outlawing any and all development efforts and logging projects thereon.

On the international front, meanwhile, CCF's grants have been geographically concentrated in Southeast Asia and have focused on four major objectives: “preserving fragile library texts written in classical literary script”; “addressing persistent social and environmental effects of past armed conflicts”; “developing a model to demonstrate the environmental and social effects of upstream dams on a major river system”; and “helping planners and policy-makers respond to climate change issues.” The latter of these is founded on the premise that greenhouse gases emitted by human industrial activity are responsible for the potentially catastrophic phenomenon of global warming.